Carter-Williams & Oladipo try to overcome rookie adjustments and obstacles

Every kid playing basketball dreams of making the NBA one day, but some don’t know what to expect once they reach that level. For rookies Victor Oladipo and Michael Carter-Williams, it’s meant position switches, quickly being a team’s top option, dealing with the stress and rigors of a long season and being in situations they had never encountered or even envisioned before.

Both 2013 lottery picks played in New York City arenas this week and spoke with SheridanHoops about their experiences as we’ve reached the regular season’s halfway mark.

“I didn’t really know what to expect going into the whole thing. I just knew I was going to be in the NBA,” Oladipo said on a snowy evening in Brooklyn. Oladipo was drafted second overall by the Orlando Magic and immediately had expectations heaped on him as the player who could be the most talented player in the rookie class.

Then he found out he would transition from shooting guard to point guard. “The ball’s been in his hands, which is a tough task at this level,” Magic head coach Jacque Vaughn said. It’s an even tougher task when you realize he played shooting guard at Indiana University and was then told he would have to learn a totally new position in his first NBA season.

Oladipo’s been getting some one-on-one time with coaches and help from teammates like veteran point guard Jameer Nelson to get him acclimated to the league’s most demanding position. “I’m just trying to learn and keep growing as a player,” Oladipo said.

Those demands have been even tougher in Philadelphia, where Carter-Williams, the 11th overall pick, was asked to not only start at point guard and be a top offensive option right away, but do so on a team with the league’s fastest pace and a demanding head coach in Brett Brown.

“It’s a tall task when you come in as a rookie at any position, albeit the point guard position with what he’s been tasked with and the responsibility, I think he’s handled it well,” said Sixers veteran center Spencer Hawes.

Carter-Williams and Oladipo are the only two rookies to play more than 31 minutes per game. They’re the top two rooks in points per game, two of the top three rookies in assists and the top two rookies in free throw attempts per game. Not surprisingly, they’re high up in Chris Bernucca’s rookie rankings.

But all that success has not come easily.

Neither player shoots very well from the field, both have negative net ratings and neither are standout defenders at this point. Fatigue and the dreaded “rookie wall” could be hitting both players, who each have a negative 11 net rating (the difference between your points scored and allowed per 100 possessions) in January.

“I think that there is a wall that everybody goes through, but it’s exposed even more when you’re a 180-pound rookie playing the most difficult position in the league,” Sixers coach Brett Brown said. However, Brown had nothing but praise for MCW’s play so far.

“He’s taken advantage of the forum, the opportunity to play 34 minutes with a team that’s in the rebuilding stages that we clearly are at, and for him to go play and play freely and not have to always worry about being perfect,” Brown said. Here’s where Carter-Williams excels:

 

Oladipo is actually having his best month offensively, shooting 44.3 percent from the field in January, and Nets coach Jason Kidd said he has “all the tools” to be a good NBA point guard.

“It makes him a little more dangerous when he has the ball than being an off-guard,” Kidd said. “He makes all the right plays on the pick-and-roll, so the sky’s the limit for him because you can see his athletic ability, his ability to get to the basket, but also he could shoot so he’s a talent.”

Yet despite what Kidd said, Oladipo’s shooting has been a bit troubling and is a constant work in progress for the 21-year-old along with transitioning to the point. He’s still shooting under 30 percent from three this season (see chart below), and he admitted that his long-range shot isn’t where he’d like it to be right now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But in playing a totally different position, Oladipo said his transition extends to some of the more basic basketball elements. “Just knowing where people are supposed to be, different coverages, the way people guard you, just a whole bunch of things that go into it,” Oladipo told Sheridan Hoops. “Just a lot of things you gotta be prepared for that I’m trying to learn,” including different reads and the different way players and teams will guard him over time.

“Teams make adjustments too,” Oladipo said. “So they might guard you one way one half and they might guard you a totally different way in the second half. So you gotta be prepared for it.”

Vaughn is impressed at his prized point guard’s work ethic and desire to improve. “He’s the best student you could imagine,” Vaughn said, while also adding that perhaps the biggest key in his development is recognizing situations on and off the court as they take place.

“Recognizing from game to game, the last time we played Brooklyn, how are they going to play him this time? So the anticipation, the preparation going towards the game. Is he watching film, is he studying if he gets switched off to Alan Anderson, what might happen? As a young guy, you’re learning how to prepare yourself for the season and for today’s game.”

Speaking of preparation, before each game, Carter-Williams, the 22-year-old from Syracuse University, has the names and numbers of that night’s referees taped to his locker. “I’m young, I’m trying to learn their names, just trying to build a relationship,” he said. “I’m just trying to learn who they are as people, because I’m probably going to be seeing them a lot throughout my career.”

Carter-Williams seems to have a vision both on and off the court that’s uncommon among NBA players. He’s second in the league in steals per game, he has this desire to know all about game officials and he’s quite cognizant of the proverbial rookie wall. “I’m smart out there,” Carter-Williams said. “I don’t try to kill myself, but I also try to get a sweat in and try to work hard in practice and get a lot of shots up and reps.”

Of the rookie wall, Hawes said that everyone goes through it at some point, but he thinks Carter-Williams is handling himself well. “I think he’s pretty comfortable with how he’s playing. He’s doing a good job of learning how to take care of himself off the court, and it all bodes well for him,” he said.

Brown came away optimistic and hopeful that his rookie will continue to make an impact at this level.

“I feel like his progression and his evolution has gone really, really well,” Brown said about Carter-Williams. “I enjoy coaching him, and his performance to date, his numbers, his performances speak for themselves. He’s a really skilled player with just an enormous upside.”

As for Oladipo’s move to point guard, Vaughn, himself a former NBA point guard, is making sure not to put so much pressure on him. “We want him to be a basketball player and just play, and he’s been able to do that also.”

Both players are ultimately talented, comfortable and fun to watch. Carter-Williams and Oladipo may be enduring some struggles and obstacles right now, but with proper preparation and coaching, a couple of stars may be unearthed from the horrific 2013 draft class after all.

Shlomo Sprung is a national columnist for Sheridan Hoops who loves advanced statistics and the way they explain what happens on the court. He is also the web editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. A 2011 graduate of Columbia University’s Journalism School, he has previously worked for the New York Knicks, The Sporting News, Business Insider and other publications. His website is SprungOnSports.com. You should follow him on Twitter.